Judge Finds No Standing To Block Ill. Aid-In-Dying Law

By Celeste Bott

An Illinois federal judge on Thursday refused to block a new law from taking effect that allows patients with terminal illnesses to seek a doctor's assistance in ending their lives, ruling that a challenge brought by disability rights advocates relied on speculative fears rather than imminent legal harm.

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States Press Court To Block DOT's CDL Data Request

By Jared Foretek

A Virginia federal judge on Thursday questioned the Trump administration's claim that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's chief counsel wasn't speaking for the agency itself when she told a nationwide commercial driver database operator to either hand over millions of driver files or see its federal funding slashed.

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Illinois, Nicor Gas Cut $140M Rate Reduction Deal

By Lauraann Wood

Nicor Gas customers will see less than half of the 14% rate increase Illinois' largest gas utility service had initially sought as part of a rate reduction settlement valued around $140 million, state Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced Wednesday.

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24 States Ink Deal With Feds In AmeriCorps Budget Cuts Case

By Rachel Riley

Two dozen states and the District of Columbia have reached a settlement with the Trump administration to stop the federal government from abruptly slashing funding for the national volunteer agency AmeriCorps in the future, the coalition of states announced Thursday.

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Brief

Ill. Bond Trader Gets 16 Years For $30M Firm-Tanking Fraud

By Lauraann Wood

A former Illinois bond trader who was convicted of a $30 million fraud scheme that shuttered his Atlanta-based former employer has been sentenced to more than 16 years in federal prison, according to case filings entered Thursday.

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1st Circ. Keeps USPS Ballot Mail Rule Blocked For Midterms

By Julie Manganis

The First Circuit on Thursday rejected a request from the U.S. Postal Service to lift a Massachusetts federal judge's order blocking new mail ballot requirements that the appellate court said would create "chaos and widespread disenfranchisement" just weeks before the November midterm elections.

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States Drop Suit Over HUD's Fair Housing Funding Changes

By Isaac Monterose

A group of 16 states and the District of Columbia have agreed to drop their California federal court lawsuit accusing the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development of wrongfully seeking to cut off funding for fair housing enforcement targeting discrimination based on characteristics such as sexual orientation.

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7th Circ. Won't Revive Mail Carrier's Race Bias Suit

By Gina Kim

The Seventh Circuit declined to revive a U.S. Postal Service carrier's discrimination suit stemming from an altercation with his supervisor, who called police to escort him off the premises, ruling Thursday no reasonable jury could say the treatment, "however disrespectful or ill-advised," had anything to do with the carrier's race.

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State AI Safety Laws Raise New Liabilities For Healthcare Cos.

Healthcare and life science companies using third-party artificial intelligence tools should pay particular attention to the changing state-level legal landscape, where the rollout of multiple AI safety laws is introducing both new compliance obligations and potential consumer protection liabilities, say attorneys at McDermott.

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Series

Juggling And Unicycling Make Me A Better Lawyer

Because I juggle (sometimes with fire) and ride the unicycle, friends and family used to joke that I should join the circus, but I pursued the practice of law instead and learned that my hobbies benefit my profession in several important ways, says Morgan Eddy at Smith Currie.

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Senior Lawyers Survey: Tell Us About Your Career

How are senior lawyers adapting to evolving career paths and emerging technologies? Share your perspective in this five-minute survey.

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Engineering Co. Calls Atty-Ouster Bid Retaliatory In Wage Suit

By Benjamin Morse

An engineering company urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to reject a bid to remove its lawyer from a wage case, arguing the worker is retaliating because the company tried to disqualify one of his attorneys from a separate case.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Elias Law Group LLP and Stinson LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Missouri cannot use a newly drawn congressional map that favors Republicans in the midterms.

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In-House Atty Org. Says Rival Ripped Off Data For AI Tool

By Andrea Keckley

The Association of Corporate Counsel alleges in Delaware federal court that its competitor used the nonprofit's proprietary materials to train its artificial intelligence tool Lloyd and "brazenly promoted its Lloyd product by showing the public that ACC materials could be accessed via Lloyd."

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Greenberg Traurig, Eckert Seamans Hit By Data Breaches

By Ryan Boysen

Greenberg Traurig LLP and Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC have publicly revealed that they've been hit by data breaches, adding to the dozens of cybersecurity incidents U.S. law firms have suffered this year.

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Legal Ops Duo Sees AI Driving Department Redesign

By Anna Scott Farrell

Connie Brenton and Jeff Franke consider themselves, and others in the field of legal operations, to be, fundamentally, entrepreneurs. Here, the pair sat down with Law360 Pulse to talk about the state of their field, why legal ops is still misunderstood, and their annual conference, Running Legal Like a Business, which took place this week in Las Vegas.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

AI is driving a significant gap between in-house legal departments' budgets and the cost of their workloads, according to a new study. Speaking of gaps, a new Law360 Pulse report on women in law found that men still make up 71% of law firm equity partners and 63% of nonequity partners. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.​

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Analysis

Midterm Wins Could Help Dems Probe Trump's BigLaw Deals

By Courtney Bublé

If the Democrats take back one or both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, a big item on their oversight agenda will be to step up ongoing investigations of the deals that nine major law firms cut with the Trump administration last year.

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Personal Injury Firm Beats Atty's Bid For 'Birth Justice' TM

By Adam Lidgett

A former associate at a personal injury and medical malpractice law firm can't register in her own name a trademark for birth-injury legal services that she helped develop before and during her employment with the firm, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has ruled.

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Trial Errors 'Crippled Goldstein's Defense,' 4th Circ. Hears

By Jeff Overley

Appellate luminary Tom Goldstein unveiled a sweeping and forceful critique aimed at erasing his felony fraud convictions, telling the Fourth Circuit that prosecutors were hell-bent on convicting him "no matter the facts or law," disregarded a star witness's "incompetence" and benefited from a trial judge's "inexplicable" rulings.

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Interview

ABA Cyber Task Force Co-Chair Eyes AI Education Boost

By Allison Grande

With the legal industry presenting a more and more enticing target for cyberattacks, it's becoming increasingly important for practitioners to know how to best protect clients' data and most effectively use emerging artificial intelligence tools — a task that the American Bar Association's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force is well positioned to assist with, its incoming co-chair recently told Law360.

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Afghan Woman Deported in 1st 'Alien Terrorist' Case

By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton

The Trump administration deported an Afghan woman accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting in the first case before the previously dormant Alien Terrorist Removal Court.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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Attys Must Arbitrate $8 Oil To Fight $625K Sanction: 9th Circ.

By Jeff Overley

Class action lawyers slapped with six-figure sanctions for suing Walmart Inc. based on erroneous purchase information can't yet challenge the discipline, the Ninth Circuit ruled, suggesting they may first need to arbitrate grievances over an $8 bottle of avocado oil.

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Ex-Wash. Bench Officer Censured Over Explicit Texts, Emails

By Ben Adlin

The Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct censured a former Okanogan County Superior Court commissioner Friday, finding that Robert Colbert violated the Code of Judicial Conduct by engaging in what a stipulated agreement describes as "unprofessional, inappropriate communications" with a court employee that involved "sexually explicit language."

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Brief

Colo. Governor Appoints Atty To Denver Court

By Rachel Konieczny

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis appointed Friday an attorney to the Denver District Court, filling the vacancy that will be created by a retirement on the bench.

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